Maharashtra finally gives inventor of 11 rice varieties his due

The Maharashtra government on Sunday gifted five acres of land to veteran paddy innovator-farmer Dadaji Khobragade at his native village in Chandrapur district.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar met the septuagenarian, twice recipient of the National Innovation Foundation’s coveted award and one of the top 10 rural innovators on Forbes India’s list last month, and gave him a cheque of Rs1 lakh.

He asked the district administration to identify the land to be transferred to Khobragade. He assured him that the NCP would gift him an additional five acres to continue and expand his field research.

But the farmer who invented 11 rice varieties still awaits endorsement of his name by the state-run Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV), in its varietal-release proposal document, as the original inventor of the HMT strain, a variety that is widely grown in central India.

Khobragade said he would be able to widen his research with the money he has received. “It will also provide some income stability,” he said. Currently, he is tilling an acre-and-a-half that was gifted to his daughter-in-law by her father. Some years ago, he had to sell his land for the treatment of his son who suffers from sickle cell anaemia.

“The government has finally decided to felicitate Dadaji and support his work,” said Dr Milind Mane, a social and political worker from Nagpur, “We hope the PDKV will now grant Dadaji his due credit and set the record straight.”